#nathaniel caver

While this is a great article and one I fully recommend, I am kinda sad it does not include more less-known LGBTQ heroes from X-Men, like Karma, Mercury, Bling!, Anole, Morph or Hinsight. I do believe they deserve more spotlight, even if it would be a small note mentioning them to be minor characters like Shatterstar.

Kids go back to fight in Iceman #10.

An okay issue, Amp got beaten up by Michaela in a nice fashion and Ide got to make a badass stand against Daken. Bobby beat Daken with style and also gave some small explanation for why Daken is so out-of-character here when compared with All-New Wolverine, that basically boils down to Apocalypse Seed messing up with his mind - good enough for me to remove one of biggest problems that I know many fans had with this book, that is his portrayal. Similarly, Kitty goes and admit she was acting more like a bitter ex and less than a supportive friend and leader she said she would be for Bobby, so another complaint has been addressed and made into a plot point. In the end, it feels a lot of time the book threw it what we could see as a flaw only to utilize it later.

Of course, idiots are still complaining how “Bobby has no personality beyond being gay” and “BLERGH! IT’S STILL 2015 AND BENDIS IS WRITING IT!”. But what can you expect from that crowd?

Caught Up to two more series:

Generation X - I think this is one of the best X-Men books out there. it is written by someone with an incredible love for these characters and it shows - Christina Strain can easily dig into the minds of everyone from Jubilee through Bling! to Quentin Quire and provide a teen drama that feels incredibly honest at its heart.And I freaking adore the Nathaniel-Benjamin romantic subplot, with Quire tagging along as an annoyance. What I do feel is holding this book back is the need to adhere to superhero conventions and have supervillain attacks and battles, as these often feel merely derailing from more character-focused stuff and I regret Marvel doesn’t have any teen franchise where super battles are even more of a background for a teen drama. Maybe she should pitch to Marvel a Runaways book after Rainbow Rowell is done with her run?

Black Bolt - Okay, this is one of the most climatic books out there right now. Really dark, able to get you in the mood that feels as much as a space opera as it does a dark fantasy and psychological horror, it paints an interesting picture of Black Bolt, especially through his interactions with characters like Absorbing Man and little lien girl named Blinky, that Midnight King ends up taking care of. Blinky is an adorable sidekick and it helps she is written as a believable child. I also need to compliment Blackagar meeting Ahura in issue #8 and how much Saladin Ahmed was able to tell about their relationship in just a short scene and very few pages.

Neeerds!

Generation X #87 - a finale much more heartwarming on many fronts, than I’d expect. to save Jubilee, Quentin commits an act of sacrifice that leaves his powers not working and I’m actually feeling bad the book is ending because that’s a humble pie that would be interesting to see him having to eat. M-Plate is defeated by being tricked into absorbing Nathaniel’s powers, which then leads to classic Gen X overpowering her with their memories and freeing Monet from Emplate’s control - a heartwarming thing for fans of the original series. Nathaniel and Benji finally hook up and it’s as sweet and you’d expect. And Bling! takes a small vacation but promises to be back.

All in all, a good finale and a good farewell to a nice book. I enjoyed the series and I’m really disappointed to see it go away. If Marvel only had more faith in their own series.

Took you two long enough.

Generation X #86...You know, I really feel bad I slept over this book and didn’t show more support for it before cancelation. It is very well-written teen drama and I really like how things come together - Nathaniel and Benjamin finally hooking up, Bling! facing her fear in a fight with M-Plate, Nature Girl making deal with rats, Quentin doing something self-sacrificial - it all comes together in a very good finale. While I might complain that M-Plate knocked out and feed on some of my faves off-panel, like Surge, Hellion or Armor, I get it was not their story and since for once other kids have given the spotlight and not Wolverine, I’m not even mad. I get how it is, there are so many X-Kids you cannot give everyone their place to shine, will have just hope for next time.

I will miss this book, to be honest. It was really sweet in a way most X-Books forgot how to.